


i figured it out (i know how it goes)

by void_fish



Series: you and me and all our friends [1]
Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Animal Transformation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-15
Updated: 2017-04-15
Packaged: 2018-10-19 08:23:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10636038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/void_fish/pseuds/void_fish
Summary: Cam has always thought of himself as a dog person.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aperfect20 (blamefincham)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blamefincham/gifts).



> HAPPY BIRTHDAY LILY YOU'RE THE BEST I WROTE YOU A THING.
> 
> i have zero regrets, this is absolutely the most self indulgent thing i have written since the last time i wrote cam/dubi
> 
> BIG thanks to rosie for helping a brother out, u da real mvp

Cam has always thought of himself as a dog person. Growing up, he had family dogs, big yellow labs with stereotypical names, like Buster, or Baxter and his girlfriend in college had a small army of pugs that she used to dress up for Halloween and other holidays. 

Now that he has his own place, he’s been thinking about getting a dog for a while, but he knows it wouldn’t be fair. He travels too much, and his apartment is not dog friendly at all, and-- it just wouldn’t work. It’s fine. He gets to hang out with Brandon and Alyssa and Louie all the time, which is fine.

His point is, he loves dogs, but when he gets home one day and there’s a husky puppy sitting in his living room, surrounded by what used to be his favourite game day shoes, he’s-- confused.

‘Um,’ he says.

The puppy yips at him. There’s a shoelace hanging out of his mouth.

‘What-- is happening?’ he asks the puppy. He doesn’t know why he expected an answer. He looks up at the door to the balcony, wondering if he’d left it open. Maybe next door got a new dog while he was on a road trip. The balcony door is not only closed but locked, so.

‘How did you even get _in_?’ The puppy has no collar or anything, and when Cam tries to get closer, he jumps up and dances away, scooting under the coffee table.

He pulls out his phone to call-- someone, and there’s a text from Dubi sitting there that he hadn’t noticed.

_ coming over 4 movie night u better be home or im breaking in _

Cam knows Dubi still has a key from when it was his apartment. Did he bring the dog? Then where’s Dubi?

He hits the call button and somewhere in the apartment a phone starts rinigng.

‘Dubi?’ he calls, and the puppy pokes his nose out from the coffee table, cocking his head at him.

‘I swear, if you brought this dog and let him eat my $700 shoes, you’re paying for a new pair,’ Cam says, following the ringing sound. Behind him, the puppy is wriggling out from under the table and trotting along after him. ‘Seriously, Dubi.’

The puppy barks at him, a short sharp yelp. Cam jumps, and looks at him. ‘What?’ he asks the puppy.

He finds the ringing phone in the kitchen, in-- a pile of clothing. He recognises the shirt as Dubi’s, and when he pokes through it, Dubi’s phone is in the pocket. Everything is covered in dog hair.

‘What the fuck?’

He turns around and looks at the dog again. It’s looking back at him with huge brown eyes. Cam can’t believe he’s doing this, but--

‘Dubi?’

The dog’s ears perk up, and he starts wagging his tail, tongue lolling.

‘No,’ Cam says, slowly. ‘This is not happening.’

The dog-- Dubi-- barks again, as if to say, ‘Sorry bud, it’s definitely happening.’ He cocks his head again, ear flopping over.

-

When Cam was in college, Kreids turned into a greyhound for a week and a half, and the team had to pretend he had a knee sprain until he turned back.

Cam’s heard plenty of stories of it happening to kids in juniors, but you’re-- supposed to grow out of it, he figured.

You’re sure as hell not supposed to do it when playoffs start in _three days_.

Cam is sitting on the kitchen floor, cross-legged, while the puppy sniffs at his knee. Satisfied, he tumbles into Cam’s lap and rolls onto his back, looking up at Cam as if to say, ‘Well, it’s not going to scratch itself.’

The puppy-- Dubi-- has really soft fur, when Cam finally gets his hand in it. He rubs his belly until Dubi’s rumbling contently and stretching all his legs out, flopping down and letting his head tip onto his hip.

‘Shouldn’t you be a grown ass dog by now?’ Cam asks him. ‘I mean, I don’t know how long this is happening, but it doesn’t look like its your first time.’

Dubi just rumbles again. His eyes are half closed, blissed out.

Cam calls Nick in lieu of not knowing what else to do.

‘I have a weird question,’ he says, when Nick picks up. ‘Have-- did you ever have weird stuff happen when you were playing in Sudbury?’

There’s a pause from Nick. ‘Weird.’

‘Like-- this is going to sound dumb,’ Cam warns him. ‘But-- did you ever have a teammate-- turn into an animal?’

He rushes the last bit, and there’s an agonisingly long pause.

‘Because we did, at BC,’ Cam starts, rambling, ‘And I’ve heard stories, and I was just wondering--’

‘Dubi?’ Nick asks, interrupting him.

‘--You _knew_?’ Cam asks.

‘He told me when I got the C,’ Nick says. ‘Apparently it happens when he’s stressed, or freaking out about something.’

Dubi is snoring.

‘He doesn’t seem stressed out,’ Cam says, dubiously.

‘That’s why he goes puppy,’ Nick says. ‘It’s hard to be stressed when your internal monologue is “Am I the good boy? Is it me!”’

‘How long is he gonna be a dog?’

‘Dunno,’ Nick says. ‘Whenever he chills out enough, I guess. He hasn’t done it in a long time, he said.’

‘Why _now_?’ Cam asks.

‘Ask him,’ Nick says. ‘You want me to come over and tag in on puppysitting?’

‘No, it’s fine,’ Cam says. ‘Hopefully he’ll turn back soon. I’ll let you know.’

‘Good luck,’ Nick says, and hangs up.

Cam eyes the puppy, who is dead asleep and twitching a little. He whines when Cam tries to move him so he can stand up, so Cam-- stays sat on the kitchen floor.

He gets through fourteen levels of Two Dots before Dubi wakes up. He scratches his ear, stretches, and pisses on the kitchen floor before Cam can start shaking the feeling back into his legs.

‘You asshole,’ Cam says, with feeling, and grabs a handful of paper towels. Dubi springs at them while he’s trying to clean up, clearly thinking it’s play time. Cam huffs, and tries (and fails) to nudge him away long enough to clean up the puddle. Then he cleans up the shreds of paper towel, and sacrifices one of his dishcloths to keep Dubi occupied while he makes dinner.

Dubi gets grilled chicken cut up into tiny puppy sized pieces and, after a quick google, some raw carrot discs and grape tomatoes. Dubi knocks one off of his plate and chases it across the floor, batting at it with a paw. When he finally pounces on it, he pops it and looks up at Cam, as proud as he can look with tomato seeds on his muzzle.

Having learnt his lesson from earlier, Cam takes him out on the balcony where Dubi can go to the bathroom somewhere not on his kitchen floor. He falls asleep again after that, curled into a tight ball on one of Cam’s old sweaters.

Cam ends up dozing off on the couch, and wakes up when Dubi jumps on his stomach and starts licking his face.

‘Where are you going to sleep?’ Cam asks him. Dubi looks at him and yips.

Cam makes a nest out of towels in the kitchen, deposits Dubi in them, and says, ‘Stay,’ firmly. Dubi watches him close the door sadly.

Cam makes it all the way to his bedroom before Dubi starts crying like he’s being tortured.

‘Oh my god,’ he says, opening the kitchen door. Dubi is sitting in the middle of the floor howling at the ceiling, and as soon as Cam opens the door he bounces up and winds around his legs, whining.

‘Okay, okay,’ Cam says, and collects the towel nest, moving it to the corner of his room.

Dubi follows him, wagging furiously, and by the time Cam has settled the nest in his room, Dubi is sitting in the middle of his bed, smiling at him.

‘No,’ Cam says. ‘That’s my bed.’ He points at the towels. ‘This is your bed.’

Dubi lies down, resting his muzzle on his paws.

‘--Fine,’ Cam says. ‘If you pee on my bed, you’re sleeping on the balcony for the rest of the night.

Cam climbs under the sheets and Dubi wriggles in after him, curling up by his feet so there’s a lump at the foot of his bed. It’s-- kind of nice, actually. Familiar, Cam thinks. He dozes off easily to the sound of muffled snores from Dubi.

-

Cam wakes up to Dubi crying and jumping up at the closed bedroom door. He makes a beeline for the balcony door as soon as Cam opens it, turning in tight circles until he can get outside.

‘Good boy,’ Cam says, when he comes trotting back in after peeing. He scratches behind his ears and Dubi’s tail thumps against his leg.

_still furry,_ Cam texts Nick.

Nick sends him a puppy emoji back, and _want me to tag in yet?_

_nah_ , Cam sends, with a picture of Dubi lying on his back in the early morning sun. _i think i like him better like this._

Nick sends a string of emojis back, including a face with zipped lips. _let me know_.

‘Breakfast?’ Cam asks Dubi, who flips back onto his feet and yips.

‘You know,’ I can’t tell how much you can actually understand,’ Cam says, conversationally, while he’s scrambling eggs and Dubi is busying himself tearing a strip of bacon into tiny pieces. ‘Sometimes I feel like you know exactly what I’m saying.’ 

There’s a clatter as Dubi runs into a table leg chasing a bacon sliver.

‘And then sometimes there’s this,’ Cam says, and turns his attention back to the pan.

-

Nick turns up at lunch time with some dog toys and a collar and leash.

Dubi eyes him with extreme distrust.

‘Walkies?’ Cam tries, hopefully.

Dubi growls.

-

Cam hears a thump while he’s in the shower, and when he gets out, Dubi is standing by his linen closet wrapping a towel around his waist.

‘Hey bud,’ Cam says, easily. ‘Nice to see you on two legs again.’

‘Where are my clothes?’ Dubi asks. He’s not making eye contact with Cam, which Cam kind of gets. He did just spend a full twenty four hours begging Cam to rub his belly and chasing a spider across the apartment. (Cam is glad for Dubi’s sake that he didn’t catch it.)

‘I washed them, they were covered in dog hair,’ Cam says, and goes to get them. He throws some clothes on too, but by the time he’s dressed, Dubi is gone.

-

Apparently, they’re not talking about it.

Dubi shows up for the flight to Pittsburgh with big, over the ear noise cancelling headphones. It’s about as subtle a ‘fuck off and don’t talk to me’ as anyone’s gonna get from Dubi, so Cam sits next to Matty and half listens to whatever story he’s telling about his kid.

-

Pittsburgh is-- whatever. It’s Pittsburgh.

They go back home down 2-0 and Dubi _still_ isn’t talking to Cam.

-

Torts gives them a day off. Cam takes it and shows up at Dubi’s apartment armed with thai food and the fancy smoothies he likes.

‘--Hi,’ Dubi says, opening the door a crack. He’s not wearing a shirt, just low slung sweatpants with a hole in the knee.

‘You’ve been avoiding me,’ Cam says. ‘So we’re gonna talk about it.’ He barges his way into the apartment and makes himself at home, grabbing plates and forks out of the kitchen before setting up the food on the coffee table.

Dubi just sits down next to him on the couch, picks up the container of yellow curry and takes a cautious bite.

‘You’re embarrassed about the puppy thing, huh?’ Cam asks, picking up his own food.

Dubi coughs, almost chokes, takes a gulp of smoothie. Cam waits, patient.

‘It hasn’t happened in a long time,’ Dubi says. ‘It’s supposed to just be-- a juniors thing, or whatever. It doesn’t happen when you’re a fucking adult.’

‘Except apparently it does.’

‘Except apparently it does,’ Dubi echoes, looking down at his container of food.

‘It’s not a big deal,’ Cam says. ‘I mean, you owe me a pair of shoes, but. It was kind of fun. You’re cute as a puppy.’

‘Fuck off,’ Dubi says, scowling.

Cam grins. ‘Your fur is super soft, too. And you’re an excellent footwarmer.’

Dubi shoves him, but he’s trying not to smile, and when Cam looks at him properly, Dubi meets his eyes before ducking his head a little.

‘It won’t happen again,’ Dubi says. ‘It was-- a one time thing.’

‘How can you tell?’ Cam says. ‘I thought it was supposed to be something you can’t control.’

Dubi shrugs.

Cam drops it. ‘Wanna watch me kick your ass at Halo?’ he asks, jerking his head at the Xbox.

‘Fuck you, kick my ass,’ Dubi says, putting his food down immediately. ‘I’ll kick _your_ ass.’

And like that, it’s-- better. Not quite back to normal, but close enough. Dubi stays human shaped, and Cam soundly kicks his ass at Halo, and then again at NHL when Dubi insists in switching games.

\--

Cam gets a text from Dubi the morning of game four, and it’s half-gibberish, _are you busy_ followed by a mess of punctuation and emojis.

‘Fuck,’ Cam says, and heads over to Dubi’s apartment immediately. He has a spare key, and lets himself in to find Dubi waiting for him in the entryway, ears and tail at attention.

He jumps up at Cam as soon as the door opens, yelping and pawing at his pants.

‘Hey buddy,’ Cam says, rubbing his muzzle. ‘Not gonna happen again, huh?’

Dubi bites him, gently, and Cam swats at him. ‘Asshole,’ he says, and Dubi yips.

Cam texts Nick a picture with a sad emoji. Nick sends him an eyeroll emoji and says he’ll tell Torts Dubi’s ill or something.

'Your timing is great,’ Cam says. ‘You wanna try and change back before tonight’s game?’

Dubi whines, and when Cam sits down, he crawls into his lap and curls up. Cam pets him absent mindedly.

‘You’re so lucky I love you,’ Cam says, easily, and there’s a beat, and then Dubi is human, in his lap, and very, very naked.

‘What?’ Dubi asks, seemingly unconcerned with his nakedness.

‘Uh,’ Cam says. ‘Hi. you’re human again.’

‘I-- yeah.’ Dubi says, glancing down and turning a little pink. ‘I guess so.’

‘I thought you couldn’t control it?’

‘I can’t,’ Dubi says, cagey.

‘Hmm,’ Cam says, and shoves at him. ‘Go put some pants on. We’re talking about this.’

‘There’s nothing to talk about,’ Dubi protests, but he climbs out of Cam’s lap and disappears into his room.

When a few minutes passes, and he hasn’t come out, Cam shouts through after him. ‘You better not be a dog again, we fucking need you tonight!’

‘I’m not,’ Dubi says, emerging out. ‘I thought you might leave.’

‘You want me to leave?’ Cam asks, surprised.

‘If it means we don’t have to talk about this,’ Dubi says, pink cheeked.

Cam looks at him. He can’t figure out what Dubi wouldn’t want to talk about. And then he thinks about the first time Dubi changed, in Cam’s apartment. The second time he changed, when he was texting Cam.

‘You know,’ he says. ‘If I didn’t know better, I’d say I was the common denominator here.’

Dubi looks at him suddenly, surprised. His face makes a weird expression.

‘Don’t you dare change on me again,’ Cam says. ‘What is it about me making you change?’

Dubi says nothing.

‘Fligs says that you change when you’re stressed,’ Cam says, mostly thinking out loud. ‘Am I stressing you out? Or are you stressed out by hanging out with me?’

Dubi still says nothing. Cam keeps thinking.

‘You asked me if I was busy,’ he says. ‘Did you want to talk to me about something?’

Still silence. 

‘You’re gonna have to talk to me sooner or later,’ he adds, and Dubi scowls.

‘Maybe,’ he says, shifting on the couch.

‘What was it?’ he asks. ‘It can’t be as bad as you’re making out.’

Dubi is very red. Suddenly, a lot of things click into place for Cam.

_ You’re lucky I love you. _

‘Brandon Dubinsky,’ he says. ‘Do you have a crush on me?’

Dubi turns even redder and looks like he’s about three seconds away from running.

‘I’m not _twelve_ ,’ he says. ‘I don’t have crushes.’

‘But you wanna date me,’ Cam persists.

‘--Fine,’ Dubi says. ‘Yes.’ He pauses. ‘I’m-- kind of stupidly into you. I was gonna tell you at movie night last week, but I freaked myself out thinking about it, and-- puppy.’

‘Huh,’ Cam says. 

‘Don’t say _huh_ like that,’ Dubi says, scowling. ‘It’s fine. Obviously you don’t feel the same way, don’t be an asshole about it.’

‘When the fuck did I say that I didn’t feel the same way?’ Cam asks, kicking at him.

‘--What?’ Dubi falters.

‘You better take me to a nice goddamn restaurant,’ Cam says. ‘You pissed on my kitchen floor. _Twice_.’

Dubi is looking at him like Cam just punched him. ‘You-- what?’

‘Oh my god,’ Cam says. ‘Thank god you’re pretty, Dubs. We’re both free tomorrow. Make reservations for a nice place. Pick me up at eight. Wear a tie.’

-

Dubi turns up at 7:55 in a meticulously tailored suit. He opens the car door for Cam both times and takes him to a fancy steakhouse. They split a bottle of wine and Uber back to Cam’s place giggly and happy. Cam kisses him outside his front door, messing up his neatly combed hair and untucking his shirt to slide a hand into the waistband of his pants.

‘You’re not going to freak out again and go puppy, are you?’ he asks, biting the hinge of Dubi’s jaw.

‘God I hope not,’ Dubi says, and lets Cam pull him inside the apartment, shutting the door behind them decisively.


End file.
